The Detainee Policies

05:00am New York Time (EDT), (10:00am
London time (BST)) Thursday, 25th October
2012

Starting today, Thursday, 25th October 2012,
WikiLeaks begins releasing the ’Detainee Policies’: more
than 100 classified or otherwise restricted files from the
United States Department of Defense covering the rules and
procedures for detainees in U.S. military custody. Over the
next month, WikiLeaks will release in chronological order
the United States’ military detention policies followed
for more than a decade. The documents include the Standard
Operating Procedures (SOPs) of detention camps in Iraq and
Cuba, interrogation manuals and Fragmentary Orders (FRAGOs)
of changes to detainee policies and procedures. A number of
the ’Detainee Policies’ relate to Camp Bucca in Iraq,
but there are also Department of Defense-wide policies and
documents relating to Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and
European U.S. Army Prison facilities.

Among the first to
be released is the foundation document for Guantanamo Bay
("Camp Delta") – the 2002 Camp Delta SOP manual. The
release of the ’Detainee Policies’ marks three years of
Camp Delta (Guantanamo Bay) SOP manuals released by
WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks has now released the main Guantanamo
Bay operating manuals for 2002, 2003 and 2004. The
previously unpublished 2002 manual went on to shape
successive years in the Guantanamo Bay prison complex and
other U.S. military prisons around the world, such as Abu
Ghraib. "This document is of significant historical
importance. Guantanamo Bay has become the symbol for
systematised human rights abuse in the West with good
reason," said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "But how is
it that WikiLeaks has now published three years of
Guantanamo Bay operating procedures, but the rest of the
world’s press combined has published none?"

In relation
to Iraq, the release includes Operation Orders (OPORD)
regarding policies for screening and interrogating
detainees. The documents also include routine instructions
relating to staffing, scheduling of legal visitation,
procedures for administering medical treatment, how medical
records and daily staff journals are to be kept, cigarette
rationing and what items are "authorised for detainee
possession".

A number of what can only be described as
’policies of unaccountability’ will also be released.
One such document is the 2005 document ’Policy on
Assigning Detainee Internment Serial Numbers’. This
document is concerned with discreetly ’disappearing’
detainees into the custody of other U.S. government agencies
while keeping their names out of U.S. military central
records – by systematically holding off from assigning a
prisoner record number (ISN). Even references to this
document are classified "SECRET//NOFORN". Detainees may be
disposed of in this manner without leaving a significant
paper trail.

Another formal policy of unaccountability is
a 2008 Fragmentary Order that minimises the record-keeping
surrounding interrogations. Following revelations of torture
tapes and pictures from Abu Ghraib and the political scandal
over the destruction of Central Intelligence Agency
interrogation tapes, the FRAGO eliminates "the requirement
to record interrogation sessions at Theatre Internment
Facilities". Although the FRAGO goes on to state that
interrogations that take place at Division Internment
Facilities and Brigade Internment Facilities must be
recorded, it then states that these should be "purged within
30 days". This policy was subsequently reversed by the new
Obama administration.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
said: "The ’Detainee Policies’ show the anatomy of the
beast that is post-9/11 detention, the carving out of a dark
space where law and rights do not apply, where persons can
be detained without a trace at the convenience of the U.S.
Department of Defense. It shows the excesses of the early
days of war against an unknown ’enemy’ and how these
policies matured and evolved, ultimately deriving into the
permanent state of exception that the United States now
finds itself in, a decade later."

A number of documents
relate to the policies surrounding the interrogation of
detainees (2004, 2005, 2008). Direct physical violence is
prohibited, in writing, but a formal policy of terrorising
detainees during interrogations, combined with a policy of
destroying interrogation recordings, has led to abuse and
impunity. We learn of policies that apply to international
forces: a 13-page interrogation policy document from 2005
relates to all personnel in the Multi-National Force–Iraq
(MNF–I). It details "approved" "interrogation approaches".
The documents detail the promotion of exploitative
techniques such as the "Emotional Love Approach: Playing on
the love a detained person has for family, homeland or
comrades". In the "Fear Up (Harsh)" approach, by contrast,
"the interrogator behaves in an overpowering manner with a
loud and threatening voice in order to convince the source
he does indeed have something to fear; that he has no option
but to co-operate".

The ’Detainee Policies’ provide a
more complete understanding of the instructions given to
captors as well as the ’rights’ afforded to detainees.
We call upon lawyers, NGOs, human rights activists and the
public to mine the ’Detainee Policies’ and investigate
important issues such as the denial of access to the ICRC
(International Committee of the Red Cross) to detainee
facilities, as well as to research and compare the different
generations of SOPs and FRAGOs to help us better understand
the evolution in these policies and why they have occurred.
Publicise your findings using the hashtag #WLfindDP

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